1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispersing a nanocomposite material, which can improve the dispersibility of a metal powder and a nanocomposite material and prevent nanocomposite molecules from being damaged.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a nanocomposite material is mixed with a metal powder to form an alloy. In addition, to ensure the mechanical characteristics of this alloy are maintained or increased, the metal powder and the nanocomposite material must be sufficiently dispersed. Thus, pellets and raw materials (e.g., metal powder, nanoparticles) are charged in a mixing chamber, and then the mixing chamber is rotated to allow the raw materials to be dispersed by a collision with the pellets. Furthermore, the pellets have a substantially uniform size, and the weight ratio of raw materials to pellets is determined based on the collision energy necessary for the raw materials.
Moreover, the metal powder and nanoparticles are mixed by the rotation force occurring when the mixing chamber rotates and the collision energy occurring when pellets collide with the raw materials. In particular, when the collision energy is substantially large, nanoparticles are damaged. Conversely, when the collision is substantially small, nanoparticles are not sufficiently dispersed. However, the inconsistency in dispersing the nanoparticles causes in difficult when determining an optimal level of dispersion.
A known art discloses a method of manufacturing high reliability carbon nanotube (CNT) paste, including the steps of: (i) dispersing CNT powder in a solvent; (ii) adding an organic binder to the CNT powder dispersed solution; and (iii) performing a milling process to control the viscosity of the CNT powder dispersed solution containing the organic binder, wherein, in step (i) or (ii), metal nanoparticles are added. However, in this conventional it was shown to be difficult to obtain dispersion of a predetermined level or more.
It is to be understood that the foregoing description is provided to merely aid the understanding of the present invention, and does not mean that the present invention falls under the purview of the related art which was already known to those skilled in the art.